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Irish Dancing Show – Eliza Brickenden 6th class
Every 2nd year we do an Irish dancing show, this year we are doing the story of Tír na nÓg. Two years ago we did Deirdre of the Sorrows. Everyone gets to dance and some people get solo parts. Our Irish dancing teachers are Bernadine and Louise but Des our music teacher sometimes puts his music into the act. We do a practice every Tuesday, and get costumes too. We practice very hard and when we are ready we invite the parents and adults to watch us perform.
Senior Room Monthly Treat – Nora Holmes 5th class
One of the best things about being in the senior room is our monthly treat. At the end of every month we have our treat. We have been to the AstroTurf beside the skatepark to play basketball. We have also been on walking history tours. Once we went to find the boundary wall of what was the local workhouse. But sometimes we just stay inside and watch films. However there is a catch, our behaviour is monitored by our teacher each month. If we don't behave well or properly we stay in school and miss out on the fun. Luckily that has never happened. I think our teacher is too nice!
Holy Trinity Spikeball – Leon Erskine Hadden 5th class
The senior room have a new sport entering their classroom called spike ball.
Three very nice girls called Niamh, Sarah and Chloe are willing to teach us.
We just started a couple of weeks ago. The three girls from Sacred Heart School,
transition year have been teaching us all the rules and all the steps. Spike ball is very much like volleyball just different rules. The students are split into different teams and are entering a blitz in March. The girls come every Thursday to teach us more and more. The blitz takes place in the Sacred Heart gym, competing against other schools such as Scoil Phadraig and the Quay School. We are really enjoying it and are willing to win some games.
Assembly – Sophie Kennedy 5th class
When assembly happens
Assembly happens on a Friday every week unless there is something important that the principal wants to talk to the whole school about. It starts at 10.30 and is half an hour long. It takes place on the top floor.
What happens at assembly
First we come in quietly and sit down then we listen to music and try guessing the song and composer. After we discuss what has been going on over the week, anything that is planned for the following week and finally what we've learned. People come up who've had a birthday in the last week. When you go up the teacher asks you what age you've turned and what presents you got (we try not to brag). Then Mrs Brickenden the principal shares a story from the Bible. She usually likes to read a parable because that's what Jesus used to teach so it is appropriate for school. After the story we have to bow our heads and say a short prayer together and then we say the ' Our Father Prayer '. We then listen to music again and quietly exit the hall or go back to our classroom to have lunch.
IRISH DANCING Laura Dziubinska 5th class
At school we do Irish dancing on Tuesdays. Our teachers are Bernadine and Louise. We usually line up in fours and dance to the music. In Irish dancing we do jigs and reels. Once in a while there are dance competitions called feises. One of the teachers in dance class teaches side steps and another makes sure you are dancing properly. The teachers try their best to teach us everything they know. We have a lot of fun learning Irish dancing. We start to learn dance in Junior Infants we make a lot of progress through all the years.
STUDENT COUNCIL- Jonathon Ryan 5th class
Holy Trinity's Student Council lets students’ ideas for the school to be heard. The way the school picks the next group for the Student Council is by letting each class vote for a person to be the representative for their class. Then they will put all of the names of the people who want to be the next representative into a hat. The person with their name called out the most will be selected to be the next representative. The children that have been selected to be this year's representatives from the school are Jessica Farrell, Douglas O'Toole, Eireann Kilcoyne, Milo Holmes and Jonathan Ryan. So far the Student Council has brought the school new goal posts and a gardening club. Rachel Bourke helps organise Student Council meetings.
FRIENDSHIP WEEK FEAST – Rory Browne Tobia 6th class
The week before mid-term was Friendship Week. We spent the week sticking to the motto "R.A.K." ( random acts of kindness ). Then at the end of the week all the sixth class pupils gathered pupils from all the younger classes, brought them upstairs into the school hall and then played a board game together. After that, every group received a plate or tray of food and biscuits. This event allows the children to get to know children from different classes and to make new friends. After every group had finished eating, the sixth class pupils tidied up the scraps and leftover food and then returned back to their classroom.
Cross country running – Aaron O’Toole
There is a cross country competition in Ballyvary every year and we pick some students from our school to participate. We pick some students by having a race around the Holy Trinity Church ten times and the top four from each race get in. Children from third class to sixth class run in the races. The people who get in, go on a bus about three weeks later to the competition at the football pitch in Ballyvary where the race is held. There are roughly 100 people in each race. Students from lots of different schools come to compete. There are different races for girls and for boys at each age level. The younger ones run one and a half laps (1,000m) and the seniors run two laps (1,500m).
Shared Reading – Tadhg Costelloe 6th class
For shared reading each 5th and 6th class student gets a partner from the junior room and reads with them. If you are in 1st class you go into the senior room and read with one of the 5th class students. The 5th class student helps them to read the book and any hard words that are in the book. With the Junior or Senior Infants, the 6th class students go into the junior room and help them read their book, and then the 6th class student will get them to read their Tricky Words and when the Senior Infant finishes all the books she/he has to read the 6th class student has to get a book from the bookshelf and read it to the child. The Junior Infants just do their Tricky Words and then the 6th class student reads to them.
Green ways to come to school – Saoirse Kelly 5th class
We try to come to school in a green way every day. A green way to come to school means to cycle, walk, go on the bus, carpool or park and stride. At the moment we are trying to get everyone in our school to come to school in a green way - mainly park and stride. Lots of people live outside town so it's hard for them to cycle or walk the whole way to the school. There is a solution though, the people who live in the countryside or outside town can park and stride. Park and striding is driving part of the way and walking the rest. The locations that you can park and stride from are the skatepark, The Mill Street car park, The CBS, Tesco car park and the Octagon. We have achieved many Green Flags for our school, one is for green travel, we hope to get many more.
Swimming – Iris Farrell 5th class
Fourth, fifth and sixth class go to swimming for six weeks once a year. We go to the leisure centre and have about an hour of swimming. There are three levels, one for the beginners, one for the average swimmers and one for the better swimmers. We have a test at the end of the six weeks to see if we are good enough to move to the next level. If you pass you wait until the next year to do some new and harder skills, if you don't pass you wait until the next year to try again.
Friendship Week - Becki Kennedy 5th class
Holy Trinity School has Friendship Week one week before mid term break every year. For Friendship Week our school tries everything to be kind and helpful to each other. This year [2015] every classroom had a Random Acts of Kindness Tree; which is a little wooden tree that we write on; things that other people have done for us. Everyone wrote on a little love heart shaped sticky note with something that someone has said or done for us. Another thing we did as part of Friendship Week was that we watched a three minute video called How to Beat a Bully Without using your Fists. All of Friendship Week we were learning how to: sort out problems, how to control our anger, how our body works when we’re angry and lots more. We also had a feast on the very last day of Friendship Week where we played games and had some really nice treats.
Our playground – Eve Browne Moran 5th class
In Holy Trinity N.S. we have a playground, a small playground. There are games in the playground, like foursquare, hopscotch, football and other games. In foursquare there are four squares, there are king, queen, knight and servant. The king has the ball and passes either to queen, knight or servant. If he passes to one of them and it bounces on their square twice they will be out. And they will have to wait in the line till they are in again. Now is hopscotch. Hopscotch is a game with ten squares and you have to jump. For number one you have to put one foot on it and for number two you have to put two feet on them. Now the last one is football. With football there will be a goal and a few people will have to play because there will be teams and one football. And if the other team has the ball you should tackle them and get the ball off them. And if you score a goal you will get a point. On Fridays we have a ball-free day when we are given chalk and we can draw all over the ground.
The Sentinel – Síofra Lavelle Fabby 5th class
The new statue across from Supervalu, the Sentinel, represents an angel on horseback. It started to be built in October 2014 .The sculptor of The Sentinel is Ronan Halpin. The Sentinel is there to show the way to Croagh Patrick for the Pilgrims by pointing , and it keeps the town Westport from danger. Holy Trinity N.S Senior Room walked up the town to see The Sentinel and draw it. Later that week their teacher brought in wire to sculpt their own mini sculptures of The Sentinel.
Saturday Soccer – Izzy Graham Scott 5th class
Saturday Soccer is a fun activity that our school is involved in. It takes place every Saturday in Rice College gymnasium and is organised by The Westport Youth Activity Club. Our schools 5th and 6th class team is trained every Wednesday by Liam Costello and John Scott and the 3rd and 4th class team is trained every Thursday by Pat Larkin and Peter Loveday. The rules are that six people play in a match at a time; there are seven people on our team so we have one sub. Subs have to play for at least five minutes during every match so everyone has a turn. At the end of the year the W.Y.A.C organises an award ceremony. Each team is brought up to receive their medals and have their photograph taken. Afterwards all the teams are given lots of goodies and have a great time.